Are we witnessing a Facebook crisis or an existential crisis faced by the media itself?
Fighting fake news
A while ago, I came across an interesting article published in The Guardian, entitled: Could language be the key to detecting fake news? The proliferation of deliberately misleading speeches, articles, websites and social media posts has led to many researchers trying to work out what the linguistic characteristics of fake news are. The article mentions that several researchers found that fake news may have in common the language they use – fake news articles use more words related to sex, death and anxiety, and overly emotional language is often deployed. The researchers noted that propaganda tends to use abstract generalities like “truth” and “freedom.”
But how accurate can artificial intelligence (AI) be in telling fact from fake? READ MORE
The importance of role models in choosing our career or life path
The power of role models and their influence on us cannot be underestimated. This is particularly true for young people.
Whether they are a parent, an athlete, a musician, an actor, or someone else, young people are going to latch onto someone and their accompanying philosophy. They will be influenced by that person’s words, because at their young age they lack the experience and wisdom to know otherwise.
READ MOREThe new challenges for schools and online learning
When language schools were forced to suspend in-person classes earlier this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic many switched immediately to online delivery in order to continue teaching currently enrolled students.
Students and agents now face a myriad of online learning programs, many of them with questionable pricing and quality. Should online language learning courses be just a simple Zoom or Skype teaching, or should they be developed into true E-learning systems taught by trained teachers? READ MORE
Experiencing is believing – the importance of familiarization (FAM) trips
Seeing is believing – not enough anymore! In an increasingly competitive marketplace, educators are pressed to show what makes them the best in certain areas. So, please use the fam (familiarization) trips to show, rather than just tell.
There is a growing number of international educators who use familiarization (fam) trips to showcase the great things about their school, staff and students, as well as their home city and location. Such tours also strengthen working relationships between schools and student recruitment agents. Nevertheless, there are still educators, especially the ones working at full capacity, that see fam trips as work disturbance and/or waste of money. READ MORE
